Leave It All Behind

North Carolina MC Phonte and Dutch producer Nicolay continue their partnership with an unexpected left-turn, crafting a surprisingly strong full-on R&B record with almost no rapping.

The 2004 album Connected by the Foreign Exchange (North Carolina rapper Phonte and Dutch producer Nicolay) was a record of unusual warmth and vibrancy. And yet, one bum line from Phonte still threatens to derail it with every listen-- "Applied for the job of rap nigga/ But I was overqualified." For better or (mostly) worse, this sort of mindset has boxed in just about everything he's done since with Little Brother, his project with rapper Big Pooh. Though obviously in pursuit of commercial adulation and positioning himself as a vanguard of thinking man's hip-hop, Phonte too often casts those who are more successful in simple and condescending terms while offering a one-step solution to all hip-hop's ills-- increased sales of Little Brother records. A slew of missed opportunities and disillusion with the game have resulted in a whole lot of disappointing Phonte projects. But knowing this can't prepare you for just how closely Leave It All Behind hews to its title, as Phonte opts out of hip-hop with a nearly full-on R&B record with exactly two rapped verses. And there's really no way of preparing for how good it actually turned out.

I mean, Phonte's never shied away from doing hooks, but who knew he wanted to go all-out like this? But go straight long enough from the grid of the mainstream and you'll end up where you were-- word is that rapper-ternt-sanger is a pretty big with the kids these days. But while Leave It All Behind can certainly be judged in a different light post-808s and Heartbreak, it actually has more in common with Yo La Tengo's And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, a similarly muted, lovely, and humane take on adult relationships worth working for (which makes it the complete opposite of the often embarrassingly juvenile petulance of 808s). Grown and maybe not-so sexy, but certainly lived-in. "All or Nothing/Coming Home to You" begins with the always-charming intro where its narrator arguing with a woman you can't see or hear. But when Phonte mutters, "That's cool-- I wanted to play Xbox on the big TV anyways" after being shuttled off to the couch, it's reminiscent of the kind of knowing detail Mike Skinner used to master in before coke and zen fucked up his brain.

Phonte's voice isn't really suited for heavy lifting, but he's hardly alone on Leave It All Behind, getting contributions from Nicolay's more unheralded collaborators and making it rightfully feel like a conversation. Darien Brockington's easygoing lilt raises "Take Off Your Blues" out of a dangerously Love Below sentiment, while Musinah and Yahzarah give earthy counterpoint to the siesta soundscapes of "Daykeeper" and "If She Breaks Your Heart."

And musically, Nicolay's in his comfort zone, making the sort of album he'd been more or less heading towards since Connected, an album that, while certainly rooted in hip-hop, knocked like a pillow fight. It's characteristically consistent, melodic, but rarely cloying, owing its dominant sound to ghost-white sheets of Rhodes and Stevie Wonder chord leaps that terms like "milky" do no justice. Opening track "Daykeeper" successfully applies the opaque synths of "Kid A" to a completely opposite exploration of bedsit contentment. Likewise, it's tempting to see the title of "House of Cards" as bait for curious Radiohead fans, but the liftoff it achieves during its hook is stunning on its own terms, live drums and guitar glimmers twisting in the wind.

Wisely, Nicolay manages to steer clear of boilerplate neo-soul, or at least the interesting parts do. Leave It All Behind is mostly butter, but occasionally lapses into cheese. After "If This Is Love" pleasingly recalls Total's "Trippin'" with a simple but effective late-90's electronica touch, "Something to Behold" is the sort of crossover loverman rap that Little Brother would probably limply parody on The Minstrel Show. Meanwhile, some pretty terrible lyrics are hiding in plain sight amidst borderline easy listening. The closing title track tucks the kids in to bed while hoping they "dream of lullabies and clowns," and I dunno-- clowns singing lullabies tend to freak most discerning kids the fuck out.

And above all, there's the possibility that it can be tagged as a great R&B album that spans the late hours and early morning...if you're into that sort of thing. And really, as with Connected, it would be a shame if Leave It All Behind were merely lauded for how it stood in opposition to more commercially dominant hip-hop trends or derided for the same reason. It's difficult to figure how to address these qualms without the whole Foreign Exchange franchise folding altogether. For guys who haven't spent a whole lot of time together, Phonte and Nicolay get lots of mileage out of the idea of their music being handcrafted as if they were actually were hanging out in the studio. Would Leave It All Behind be a better album if Phonte didn't admittedly sound something like Maxwell with weaker lungs so often? Would it be better if Phonte rapped more? Probably not-- these sorts of projects too often inspire catcalls to keep a day job, but the Foreign Exchange may have just earned an unexpected promotion.